This is a message from the Alexandria Police Department regarding a deadly force encounter on April 17th, 2023.

Assistant Police Chief Lillie Evans introduced the Alexandria Police Department’s new Police Chief Chad Gremillion during a video statement on April 19 regarding a deadly force encounter that occurred on April 17. Also appearing in the video were Alexandria Mayor Jaques Roy, Police Commissioner Patrick VanDyke and Deputy Chief Darrell Bradley.

Evans shared comments on APD philosophy to act as a guardian of citizens, combat crime and to make a better and safer community and protect life. In order to do so the APD has to plan and carefully execute warrants when, unfortunately, serious crime is suspected and involves a heightened risk of danger to the public and law enforcement, even to minimize risk to suspects involving serious felonies. This is done through training and planning for risks. Leadership at APD has a dual role to the public it serves. It wants to ensure community obligations to share information and be as transparent as public safety allows. This must be balanced against the best practices of additional law enforcement partners reviewing APD work in cases when deadly force is faced. The APD values the sanctity of the lives that it constitutionally polices, and of all law enforcement officers. Leadership wants everyone to go home to their families. When circumstances make this impossible the APD wants the public to receive the information but it also wants to get what happens right, even sharing shift oversight in these moments when force leads to loss of life.

“I care about you and I care about our community,” said Evans. “We’re working hard solving violent crimes quickly and constantly training and working to lead as a police agency. I am proud of the work on April 17 but I take no pleasure when force escalates to a deadly encounter. We teach deescalation but this is not always possible due to choices that people make. I am concerned about you and I am concerned about our community. I am concerned about illegal guns being used by youthful offenders. I am most concerned by the failure of youth offenders to grasp the sanctity of life, including their own. We must do better.”

Chief Gremillion explained that the department reviewed multiple videos depicting what occurred from various points of view and to ensure the integrity of any findings he asked the LA State Police Bureau of Investigations to document and conduct an independent investigation and present video and other evidence for public use.

During a traffic stop on April 17 with a suspect with a passenger with felony warrants for attempted second degree murder, the suspect exited the vehicle and immediately fired multiple shots at APD officers. The suspect was eventually struck with return fire before fleeing into a wooded area where he succumbed to his injuries.

“There was no chase and there was no standoff at any point despite any reporting to the contrary,” Gremillion added. “Only as a last resort did our officers choose to use deadly force in this encounter.”

For the first time in 14 years my wife’s boyfriend is not around.

No hurrying to the door to answer nature’s call, no surreptitious piece of bacon, no squeaker tossed across the yard.

From the moment she rescued him, he clung to her like a sweater on Dolly Parton, and she to him.

Separation anxiety ran high on both sides of their affair.

If he couldn’t be there, then she often wouldn’t go, sometimes to my irritation.

He saw more tennis matches tagging along with her than McEnroe and logged thousands of highway miles, from beaches to mountains and stops in between.

As they aged neither got out as much, pretty much content with each other’s company. 

Now Oreo’s gone. And I wonder if she’ll ever be as content again.

Jim Butler, a Bolton High School alumnus, was an acclaimed writer and editor at the Alexandria Town Talk for 36 years, the last 23 (1977-2003) as editor-in-chief. He led Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of Hurricane Katrina for the Gulfport (Miss.) Sun-Herald in 2005. Butler returned home to Cenla a few years ago, and will share his talents and insight with Rapides Parish Journal readers.

Pineville, Tioga, Buckeye and Menard will host LHSAA softball quarterfinal playoff games while ASH will be on the road, with all aiming to reach the state tournament next weekend in Sulphur.

Buckeye is home today at 4:30. Pineville, Tioga and Menard play at home Saturday, when ASH travels to John Curtis.

Rapides Parish has teams in three of the four Select Division I quarterfinals.

Second-seeded Tioga plays at the Ward 10 Complex Saturday at 11 a.m. against No. 7 Acadiana, which edged Dominican 6-5 Wednesday.

No. 4 Pineville blasted Northwood 15-4 at home Wednesday and will host No. 5 Archbishop Chapelle Saturday at noon. Chapelle no-hit Captain Shreve 6-0 Wednesday. Courtlynne Bennett slammed a three-run homer for the Lady Rebels, who had an 11-0 lead.

Sixth-seeded ASH visits No. 3 John Curtis in Metairie Saturday afternoon at 2. Senior Claire Thompson gave up only a bunt single in ASH’s second-round 11-0 romp over Riverdale earlier this week.

After hammering visiting Evangel 15-0 in three innings Wednesday, Buckeye, the No. 1 seed in Select Division II, hosts No. 8 E.D. White today at 4:30 in a Select Division II quarterfinal. The Lady Panthers had a 14-run second inning to overwhelm Evangel.

Menard, the No. 9 seed in Select Division III, crushed Metairie Park Country Day by 14-0 Wednesday and gets to host the three-time defending state champion Calvary Baptist Saturday afternoon at 3. The Lady Cavaliers are top-seeded and smashed Catholic-New Iberia in a no-hitter, 15-0, on Wednesday.

The only parish team eliminated Wednesday was Oak Hill, beaten 11-1 at Claiborne Christian, the No. 1 team in Select Division V.

In a first-round baseball doubleheader Wednesday, Bolton swept Peabody 23-1 and 13-3 to advance to the second round of the Select Division II bracket.

There have been a few things that have dictated the direction my life would take. First off, that 10-inch bass I caught down on Molido behind my boyhood home signaled the start of my love for chunking and winding a rod and reel after bass.

When the first wood duck came barreling down through the flooded timber intent on landing on the water and my old 12-gauge double barrel dropped him at my feet, I fell in love with duck hunting.

There was that time before the duck and the bass conquests happened, when our up-the-road neighbor, Bud Pennington, pointed out a lump on a limb where his squirrel dog was barking and bawling at the base of the tree. He explained that that lump was no knot; it was a fox squirrel. My aim was true and as my first-ever squirrel hit the ground and thus began my lifetime love of the sport of chasing October squirrels.

Continuing on my trek through my bank of memories, the yapping and howling of a pack of beagles signaled that a deer was headed in my direction. I was on my first deer hunt in Claiborne Parish near Summerfield when a 10-point buck burst from cover to the pipeline I was watching. Slinging buckshot in his direction, I watched him tumble and once again, I had found yet another sport that had me in its grip.

Bass, ducks, squirrels and bucks were all put on the back burner when I stumbled on the sport that has captivated me like no other. The date was April 13, 1992 when I accepted an invitation to chase turkeys in Alabama. To be honest, I really didn’t care about leaving the bream beds until my outdoor writer friend, John Phillips, tossed out nuggets, like free air fare, a shotgun,

a guide and an array of camo clothing that I decided the bream could wait a week or so while I took advantage of the opportunity to do something I had never tried, and that was to give spring turkey hunting a try.

When my guide, Skinny Hallmark, called to a gobbler on the roost and I heard him gobble, spit and drum as he strutted toward where I sat, no bass, duck, squirrel or deer could make my heart thump like mine was doing as the big gobbler stepped in front of my gun and I got him.

I determined then and there that I may never kill another one but I was determined to learn all I could about wild turkeys, how to call them and how to be sure there would be turkeys around when I wanted to hunt.

This led me to become a member of the North Central Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) and to become involved in promoting the annual banquet our chapter had each year. I was impressed with the fact that the funds generated at the annual banquet are one of the main reasons we have wild turkeys to hunt in Louisiana today.

Last year I attended the banquet but attendance and involvement had been severely curtailed by the Covid pandemic that was successful in shutting down a host of worthy activities. The banquet our chapter held a couple of weeks ago was like a breath of fresh air. Whereas fewer than 100 were at the banquet a year ago, I scanned the crowd of some 250-275 enthusiastic hunters who bid on auction items to the tune of raising in the neighborhood of $50,000, funds that will go to activities favoring wild turkeys.  

“This was a building year for us, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the turnout and interest shown this year” said chapter president Mike Rainwater, “and we hope to be able to do even more in coming years.”

For the sake of these special birds, I sincerely hope so.

Contact Glynn at glynnharris37@gmail.com

Funfetti anything makes me instantly happy. I love to bake any variation of cookies, cakes and bars with sprinkles. These bars start with boxed cake mix and are so very easy to make. Since the end result is sugar overload, I suggest cutting these into very small squares!

I made these for my middle son’s class. They love homemade treats, and Hank usually likes to help make these treats to take. I also know that hands big and small are fans of sprinkles. You can’t be too old to love these delicious bars!

Ingredients:
2 boxes Funfetti cake mix
2 sticks butter, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
2/3 cup rainbow sprinkles (more if you like)
1 cup sweetened condensed milk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Crumple parchment paper and then put in a 9×13 pan so you can lift the baked bars out easily.
Mix the 2 boxes of cake mix with butter and eggs until combined. Fold in the sprinkles.
Press 2/3 of the dough into the baking dish as evenly as possible. Sprinkle with white chocolate
chips. Pour the sweetened condensed milk over evenly. Pinch the batter into small chunks and
scatter around the pan. Press gently down. Sprinkle with more sprinkles if desired.
Bake for 30 – 35 minutes until golden. Let cool completely before cutting into small squares.

(Ashley Madden is a wife, mom and published cookbook author who lives in Minden, La.)

Join the Alexandria Zoo and Party for the Planet at the zoo’s annual Earth Day event, set for this Saturday, April 22 from 10 am – 3 pm. This event offers a fun filled day with crafts, activities, and 10+ community exhibitors showcasing their conservation passion.

Engage with local organizations sharing their conservation passion through activities, crafts, and demonstrations. Take an up close look at the species that call the rain forest home, and discover how we can help protect their habitat from right here in Louisiana. Create positive change for wildlife and wild places with a FREE reusable Earth Day tote bag or milkweed seed packets, while supplies last.

Keeper Chat Schedule
11 AM Cotton-top tamarin | 12:30 PM Jaguar | 1 PM Clouded leopard | 2 PM Black bear

Crews from DOTD’s Alexandria region picked up litter in Rapides Parish on April 19 as part of Love the Boot Week, Louisiana’s largest litter cleanup effort held in conjunction with Earth Week, April 17-23, 2023. Love the Boot Week is organized by Keep Louisiana Beautiful and supported by the Office of the Lieutenant Governor.

Funeral services for Pattie Pennington DeSoto will be at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, April 22, 2023 in the chapel of Hixson Brothers, Pineville with Reverend Alton Achord officiating. Burial will be in Craig Cemetery, Kolin.

The family requests that visitation be observed at the funeral home Saturday from 9:00 a.m. until time of service.

Pallbearers will be Dionte’ Pennington, Dustin Hayes, Ronnie Armand, Raymond Piazza, Stevie Pennington, Troy Pennington, Warren Simmons, and Chase Laprairie.

Pattie, 56, of Marksville, passed away Monday, April 17, 2023 at Rapides Regional Medical Center.

Pattie attended Buckeye High School. She worked as a private sitter for many years. She had the best humor and never met a stranger. Pattie loved the outdoors, gardening, and fishing. She dearly loved her children, grandchildren, family, and her fur baby, Drake.

She is preceded in death by her father, Leon Pennington, Sr.

Those left to cherish her memory include her mother, Judy Pennington; brother, W.L. Pennington, Jr. (Tina); sisters, Claudia Weber (David), and Chandra Pennington; son, Daniel DeSoto (Angela); daughter, Kristen Torres (Leonal); grandchildren, Abigail, Brodie, Dylan, Ares, Bijou, and Aileen. She is loved by many other family members and cherished friends.

Billy H. Brown met his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on Monday, April 17th. He passed away in his home in Alexandria after a brief illness.

Visitation will be held on Friday, April 21st from 5:00 – 8:00 pm at Hixson Brothers in Alexandria. Services will be held Saturday, April 22nd at 1:00 pm at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Alexandria. Those honored to serve as pallbearers are Andy Knapp, Robby Ates, Trey Ates, Brayden Ates, Beck Ates, Mark Wiebe, and Jesse Hernandez. Honorary pallbearers are Guy Porto, Jerry McCoy, Cory Wilk and Jimmy Rush. Interment will follow at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Ball.

Billy was born to Harold Monroe and Ethel Mayes Brown on May 25, 1936, in Sikes, Louisiana.

He was preceded in death by Jane Alice Thompson Brown, his wife of 52 years, Virginia Short Brown, his wife of five years, his parents, and one grandchild, Emily Marie Ates.

He is survived by his children, Jana McCoy (Jerry) of Flower Mound, Texas, Mindy Wilk (Cory) of Lewisville, Texas, Dan Brown (Mary) of Alexandria, Louisiana, Allison Ates (Robby) of Dallas, Texas, and Amy Knapp (Andy) of Frisco, Texas. In addition, he is survived by ten grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and four sisters: Nancy Brown, Gaye Ortis, Kitty Linde, and Hilda Barkate.

Billy graduated from Louisiana Tech in Geology, and also received a Master’s degree in Geology from University of Southwestern Louisiana. He started his career working for Phillips Petroleum, and later took over the family business of Brown’s Borden Milk Distributors in Alexandria until his retirement. Throughout his life, Billy had a passion for aviation and flew until he was eighty years old. He loved the outdoors and enjoyed many years of hunting and fishing with family and friends. He and Jane Alice loved the mountains and visited Colorado every time they had the chance.

He lived his life in the example of His Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and shared his faith with everyone he encountered. He was a member of Emmanuel Baptist Church and a former long-time member of Calvary Baptist Church. Over the years he served as a deacon at both churches, and a Sunday School teacher at Calvary Baptist Church.

The family is grateful for the loving care given to Billy by the staff at Medical City Hospital while in Lewisville, Texas, and the incredible precision team at Air-Med Flight who, against all odds, made Billy’s last wish of passing at home a reality. The family appreciates Compassionate Care Hospice for their kindhearted service of making Billy and the family comfortable during his last hours.

By Lexi Rachal, Wildcats Media

Louisiana Christian University kicked off its inaugural Dr. Maggie Martin Marketplace Leadership Summit featuring keynote speaker Anne Beiler, founder of Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, Thursday afternoon in Granberry Conference Center.

Beiler gave her personal testimony of her journey, her success and her purpose. She explained how her choices impacted her life and her success.

“Our choice today determines the life we will live tomorrow,” Beiler said.

Natalie Monroe, vice president of environmental safety and sustainability operations at RoyOMartin, explained the purpose of the event and introduced her mother, Dr. Maggie Martin—the namesake of the summit. Monroe and her husband Darryl are the presenting sponsors of the event.

Martin then introduced Beiler to the packed Granberry Conference Center.

“As I was researching our guest speaker today, I quickly thought, Anne Beiler is a friend whom I have yet met,” Martin said. “Having visited with her briefly, she definitely is a friend, I can see there are many similarities in our lives.”

Martin gave some background information on Beiler and spoke about her perseverance through pain in life, which ultimately led to her success as a businesswoman.

“She twisted the pretzels, but through her journey, she also twisted her fate,” Martin said.

Throughout her presentation, Beiler emphasized the importance of finding your purpose through the presence of God.

“We are created to house the presence of God in our bodies and to walk and to talk with Him every single day,” Beiler said. “That’s our purpose.”

Beiler talked about her Amish roots and the things she learned from being in that culture that were foundational to her family life, faith and work ethic.

She said during the early years of marriage, she and her husband were on fire for God. They built a church and were heavily involved in it.

“We were in the middle of all of that and just feeling that God is good, and like we were living our purpose,” she said, “We were married seven years when we experienced tragedy and trauma.”

Their 19-month-old daughter was accidentally killed.

“I began a very slow and gradually descent into a world of emotional pain and spiritual confusion,” Beiler said.

She and her husband just went on with life because they didn’t know how to deal with grief. Eventually, she tried to find answers by speaking with her pastor.

Her pastor took advantage of her. This led her to make one of the biggest decisions of her life.

“That day I made a choice to keep a secret,” she said. “I decide that I would never tell anyone what happened to me. That one secret, that one choice, changed everything for me.”

The choice led to her near destruction—in her family life, her spiritual life and her physical life.

After a lot of inner turmoil and prayer, she told her husband about what happened, which allowed her to heal from the trauma.

After sharing her testimony of God’s grace and healing in her life, she spoke about the origins of Auntie Anne’s Pretzels.

“She really lived out—as you can hear in her testimony—the salt and light that God called her to be,” Monroe said.

Beiler said she is thankful that God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things because she is a very ordinary person. She explained the ways God used her even though she did not have formal education.

“According to the standards of this world, I was not qualified to be Auntie Anne,” she said. “There wasn’t a headhunter in the world who would’ve come looking for me, Anne Beiler, to be the CEO of an international franchise organization…I was not qualified. I love God though. I made a pretzel, and the rest is history.”

Beiler explained Auntie Anne’s Pretzels is a modern-day business miracle—it defied all odds.

She talked about the two goals they set for the business: to be profitable to give and be light in the world of business.

Through her journey of creating Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, Beiler said her business was lacking three things—formal education, capital and a business plan. However, what she did have were a purpose, a product that is better than the rest, and people who were loyal to her purpose.

Cindy Cespiva, entrepreneur, and small business owner, who attended the event said Beiler was courageous for sharing her story.

“The greatest impact today left me was that she was so open and honest to share her story,” Cespiva said. “To me, it takes a lot of courage to put yourself out there, to share the darkest moments of your life with strangers.”

Cespiva said the event benefitted everyone who attended because everyone goes through hard times, and it was encouraging to her about her story of grace and perseverance.

LCU senior business marketing and management major Kaleb Breaux said he appreciated Beiler’s emphasis on relying on God’s direction.

“I like how the speaker encouraged us to place our trust in the Lord and He will provide,” Breaux said. “She showed how someone who seems very unfit for a certain position can overcome difficulties through their trust in God and succeed beyond all expectations.”

Louisiana Christian University President Dr. Rick Brewer and Pineville Mayor Rich Dupree presented Beiler with a key to the City of Pineville.

“You could not have asked for a better speaker for this inaugural event,” Brewer said. “Anne’s story and insight was inspirational and motivational. Her character and convictional leadership resonate with the focus of the Jonathan E. Martin MBA Program. Looking forward to the next Dr. Maggie Martin Marketplace Leadership Summit April 18, 2024.”

Scott M. Brame Middle School’s 4-H club recently participated in the Rapides Parish AG Day. They interacted with baby alligators and baby chicks, and they made seed bombs and bird seed feeders. They also learned about the many uses of soy and tasted some soy butter. 4-H’ers learned how to identify some fish and clean their environments by recycling glass. Each 4-H’er received a Tree Seed Growing Kit to bring home from Seeds4Trees. 4-H’ers also learned about cattle branding and created their own unique brands with pipe cleaners.

By Jim Smilie

The Alexandria City Council approved an Operating Budget and a Capital Budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year that begins May 1 during its regular meeting Tuesday night.

There was no public comment on the proposed budgets. During council debate on the motion, District 2 Councilman Gary Johnson asked about getting increased funding for projects in his district, particularly for the demolition of blighted property and for improved drainage.

Mayor Jacques Roy noted that the $350,000 currently budgeted for demolition work represents the typical number of projects the city can do in a year. However, Roy said, if they complete those projects and exhaust the funding they can add more money later as a budget amendment.

Regarding drainage, Roy said, “when we do drainage projects anywhere it helps all.” For example, Roy explained work done on a project in District 5 benefits residents in Districts 2, 3 and 4 because the drainage system flows through all four of those districts. And, as he mentioned with demolition funding, Roy said that if the budgeted drainage work is completed and there is capacity to do more work, funds could be added by budget amendment.

Specific budget items mentioned include $2.45 million budgeted for police cars and $1 million for work to renovate the Weiss & Goldring building. Regarding the money for police cars, Roy said public safety was one of the primary concerns expressed by citizens and that includes improving technology and the department’s rolling stock.

When the discussion ended, the council voted 6-1 in favor of the proposed budgets with District 3 Councilwoman Cynthia Perry voting against the motion. Perry declined to comment when asked after the meeting why she chose to vote against the proposed budgets.

In other business, the council authorized the Mayor to enter into an agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to accept $4 million in Community Project Funding. The money will be used to build an additional 1-million-gallon above-ground water storage tank on property on La. Highway 1. Councilman Jim Villard noted the new tank would increase storage capacity and help prevent water pressure issues like the ones the city experienced in recent ice storms and hurricanes.

An ordinance was also introduced to accept the low bid for the replacement of the Bryn Mawr Bridge. That proposal will come up for final approval at the next council meeting, scheduled for May 2.

By JIM BUTLER

The Dept. of Defense wonders how much community interest there is in environmental cleanup at the former England Air Force Base.

Environmental issues at the former base first received widespread attention in 2018. 

DOD is considering re-creating a Restoration Advisory Board, a panel with no decision-making authority that establishes communication between parties involved in the cleanup. 

Practices and procedures leading to possibly contaminated groundwater are the focal point of concern at the former base, closed under the Base Realignment and Closure Act in the early 1990s. 

England is listed among the most severe instances of “forever” contaminants detected. 

They are known as “forever chemicals” because once released into the environment, they do not break down, and they build up in blood and organs.

According to them, scientists say, increases the risk of cancer, harms development of the fetus, and reduces the effectiveness of vaccines. 

The primary source of the chemicals at military installations is aqueous film-forming foam, firefighting foam, developed in the 1960s. 

According to the Environmental Protection Administration, other concerns at the former base, now an air park and industrial site under civilian authority, include buried gas cylinders, a chemical burial mound and a landfill. 

Anyone interested in sitting on the panel can contact Richard Black at: richard.black.9@us.af.mil or telephone 1-866-725-7617 to get more information. 

A RAB is a community group which meets to discuss and receive information on environmental restoration (cleanup) projects at the former base. 

A RAB facilitates and improves communication, outreach, and transparency between the former military base, the public, regulators, local governments, and interest groups for issues related to military cleanup activities. 

It provides an opportunity for community stakeholders to meaningfully participate in the cleanup process. 

If you are interested in learning more about the environmental restoration projects and having the opportunity to give your input to base and regulatory agencies on their management of cleanup projects, either as a RAB member or by attending RAB meetings, contact Black by June 15.

By Jim Smilie 

Standing up for human rights isn’t always the popular choice, but it is always the right thing to do. That was the primary message shared by Ira Forman, a former special envoy with the U.S. Department of State, during a presentation Tuesday to the Rotary Club of Alexandria. 

“You don’t win friends in foreign service when you go in and tell them you don’t like the way they are treating the Jews, or how they are treating Muslims or how they are treating Christians,” Forman said. “You’ll get Prime Ministers to call and say very nasty things.” Despite the potential for backlash, Forman said it is critical to continue to push for human rights. “We can’t repeat the history of the 1940s,” he said. 

Forman learned first-hand how nations react during his time serving as the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism for the U.S. Department of State from May of 2013 to January of 2017. During that time, Forman traveled to more than 30 countries and five continents to advocate on behalf of Jewish communities. He was also responsible for proposing and coordinating government strategies to counter anti-Semitism in more than 50 countries. 

He currently serves as the Visiting Professor of Contemporary Antisemitism at Georgetown University and Senior Fellow at Georgetown’s Center for Jewish Civilization. 

“I’m not a professional diplomat,” he said. “I was told when I was a student that there is inherent tension in U.S. foreign policy.” On the one hand, some people think of foreign policy primarily in terms of working with allies, managing trade and other administrative and governmental management processes. On the other hand, some people think of foreign policy as being focused on advocating for human rights and advocate for doing what is right. “The reality is, it has to be both,” Forman said. 

One of the first situations Forman encountered during his time as a special envoy with the U.S. Department of State came in 2014. In response to fighting in the Middle East, there were numerous protests in Europe against Israel. It was bad enough that there was talk that the majority of Jews in France were planning to leave the country. 

Forman met with a local leader of the Jewish community in France who confirmed that many were saying they would leave, but in reality he expected very few would actually move. He estimated that only 10 percent would leave because it is simply too difficult for people to move from their homes even when they are subject to persecution. 

Children were among the most affected by antisemitic persecution. Forman said he learned that roughly one third of the Jewish children in France attended public schools. Another third attended Jewish schools while the final third attended Catholic schools. “They told me that the students in the public schools were subjected to harassment. The ones in the Jewish Schools were targets of terrorists,” he said. For many Jewish children, the safest option was to attend a Catholic school. 

“In reality, this was not about the Jewish community. It was about the values of French society,” Forman said. “If a democracy can’t take care of its minority communities it’s not going to last as a democracy.” 

Forman said the United States and other nations can use tools like economic sanctions to persuade countries to support human rights, but it is hard to get sanctions approved and to gain constant pressure. 

A more effective approach is to “name and shame” countries or individuals when they get out of line. Forman cited an example from Hungary where there was a plan to erect a statue to honor someone who had worked to deport Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust.  

Human rights activists from nations around the globe came together for a meeting in Budapest to protest the planned statue. “What we said was you can do this. We can’t stop you. But you will pay the price,” Forman said. Based on the public outcry and international publicity, the Prime Minister dropped the plan for the statue. “Ostracizing bad actors may be the most powerful tool,” Forman said. 

When it comes to ending antisemitism or the persecution of any group, Forman said governments can’t do it alone. “We need the help of the civic society. We need the help of churches. We need clubs like Rotary to say ‘enough is enough’,” he said. 

“It’s a soft power when we stand up for what is right,” he continued. “We don’t always need more troops to enforce human rights. We need more diplomats to keep from needing more troops.” 

In an effort to communicate better with our community the Pineville Police Department Community Affairs Bureau created several neighborhood specific Facebook groups. These groups allow neighborhoods to communicate with your Neighborhood Liaison Officers, NLO’s and them with you about issues specific to you.

These closed groups are not monitored 24 hours a day so if you need immediate assistance call 911 or our dispatch center at 318-442-6603.

If you live in the Edgewood West area which includes Edgewood Drive between Susek Drive and Donahue Ferry Road scan the QR Code to request access to the group. There is also a map as reference.

This program is always growing so your neighborhood could be next!!!